There are some great sites on the web dealing with juke boxes and we wont show or pretend to know, as much as they do on this site (our links page will point you to them for in depth information on the golden age of the juke box), but as a coin op site we wouldn't be complete without a brief look at some of the styles, history and makers of the great juke boxes that supplied us with music for almost 100 years.

The early mechanical age

For some reason the quest to provide automatically played music has always interested people and goes back well before 1800 but as its coin operated we deal with here we will pick it up with McTammany coin operated player piano of 1876.

Seeburg Coin Operated Piano Wurlitzer coin operated Piano

He was the first to really overcome the problem of using slotted rolls of paper, tin or card to play different songs. Soon many companies were refining the process and some companies that would later to become true juke box makers were leading the pack. J.P. Seeburg (1871-1958) was perhaps the leader and became known as the "king of the player piano" and released his automatic orchestra machine. Rudolph Wurlitzer (1831-1914) had switched from importing and making musical instruments to making automatic barrel organs for fairgrounds and would soon develop the mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ that was to become the pinnacle of silent movie accompaniment. Fred Mills at Mills Novelty developed the amazing Virtuoso (see the mills collection).

Seeburg Orchestrion G Mills Volano Virtuoso

The automatic piano reached it peak in the 1920's and early 30's but the writing was already on the wall .

The Electric Recording Breakthrough

Glass & Arnold patent for the first "juke box" type machine

As early as 1889 when Louis Glass & William S. Arnold retro fitted an Edison Class M electric phonograph with their patented automatic coin attachment and the Juke box (although not know by that name then) was born. The machine was made by the Pacific Phonograph Co and the first machine installed for public use was in the The Palais Royale Saloon ,San Francisco at 5am EST on the 23rd November 1889

These first true juke boxes would seem very tame today, they played just one song through flexible speaking tubes (later a horn) but they caught the public's imagination and the ball was set in motion.

Early Wurlitzer selector Mills Empress selector

It wasn't till 1918 that the big breakthrough came with the invention of the automatic selector by a man with the unforgettable name of Hobart C. Niblack and in collaboration with the Automatic musical instrument Co (better know later as AMI) produced the first multi play jukebox in 1927.This machine used several turntables each with its own record so with space limited choices were few,only four at first.

Within a year Seeburg, who from this point on would always at the front of juke box development launched an 8 record multi player ,overcoming the space problem of large, 78rpm discs by mounting 8 separate turntables on a Ferris wheel like frame. This worked well enough but the fragile Shellac records were still a problem and his next machine ,a 10 disc player, mounted the turntables in a vertical stack.

Seeburg "Selectaphone delux" 10 player

The pre war expanstion

David Rock-ola

At about this time a new and colourful figure arrives on the juke box scene . David Cullen Rockola, a small time coin machine operator who was forced to flee Chicago one step ahead of both the police and the mobsters he had turned states evidence against (along with another coin name, Keeney) Rockola went to California and founded the Rockola scale Co in 1927 and started making gaming machines and games notably shuffleboards. Having actually changed his name to Rock-ola because so many people mispronounced it how could he have produced anything other than juke boxes and they were soon his main product. Although it was many years before rock and Roll hit the scene it is generally accepted that the term rock and roll was at least partly coined from the popular Rock-ola juke box.

Rock-ola 1424 Rock ola 1428

By 1941 the juke box was established and popularity was growing fast and the term Juke box appears for the first time, the word Juke meant rowdy or wicked so I guess the term was valid. By this time Mills, Seeburg,Rock- ola and Wurlitzer were producing some of the classic designs culminating in the classic Wurlitzer 850 in 1941.

Wurlitzer 850

Early wurlitzer Mills Empress

Wurlitzer 616 (1938) Rock ola patent

With the outbreak of war in that year all juke box production stopped dead. The US government deemed them an un necessary use of war materials like metal and plastic (Wurlitzer produced its last per war machines with wooden coin slides.) For the next 4 years Mills produced artillery shells, Wurlitzer made bomb fuses and Rock-ola made 228,000 M1 carbines.

The post war boom

After the war the real juke box boom years (1945-1965) begin and the classic designs take over from the functions of the machine, in 1946 Wurlitzer designer Paul Fuller designed the iconic model 1015 featuring water tubes with moving bubbles, 56,242 of these units were made in the next 2 years. Other companies were bringing out better looking machines each year but demand for more selections put a stop to external design when the need for more selection space on the case took over with 60+ record machines. The very popular (in the USA) counter units allowing customers to make their selections from there diner booth or bar stool also did away with the need for a focal point machine.

Bar unit Seeburg select-o-matic wall unit

The importance of the juke box to the music publishing industry is often understated, music and record companies relied on Juke boxes not only for high revenue but as important test beds for everything from record wear to judging which performers to keep on the books, and the switch from fragile 78rpm 12 inch Shellac discs to durable 7 inch 45rpm vinyl disc was a direct result of the juke box industry ,mostly through the recommendation of Seeburg. The 45rpm disc changed juke box design completely, machines became lower, held more records and had larger selection boards.

two iconic machines

The wurlitzer 1015 The Seeburg Symphonia (always called the "Trashcan"

Europe

In Europe ,after the war, Germany went overboard for jukeboxes and with the US companies unable to fulfil orders TH. Bergmann among others saw the potential and started making several good quality good looking machines, NSM got on the scene distributing Seeburgs but soon started making their own machines and by the l1980's had the largest juke box factory in the world,the company still makes CD juke boxes today. The Uk were somewhat slow in catching up (for 50,000 in Germany there were only 20,000 in the UK) and were at first hampered by import laws that demanded that over 50% of jukebox parts be made in the UK.

TH Bergmann Conterto later Bergmann

The innovative German built Wiegandt Tonmaster NSM Satelite

wall mount (1956-61)

At this point another colourful figure enters the field in form of Sam Norman. Seeing the demand partly being filled by the unrestricted TH Bergmann machines Norman did a deal with AMI to build their machines under licence at his Balfor Marine factory in UK using 53% local parts, this and his ruthless business practices made him a multi millionaire with yachts ,Rolls Royce cars,aircraft and houses all over the world ,he once admitted he needed £1000 a week to live his lifestyle ,a great deal of money in 1959.But it came at a price, he had few friends and went everywhere with a bodyguard. He was well known as a man who always got what he wanted and you didn't cross. Once after being told it was impossible he went to the Vatican, demanded an audience with the pope, got one and returned home with a bottle of wine from the Vatican wine cellars to prove it! The one thing he couldn't insist on was a long life, he died of cancer in 1962 aged 44.

Sam Norman in his sports plane at a time when most people had never even been in a plane Sam had his own private 20 seat airliner

In Typical Sam Norman style the planewas used as a flying Jukebox showroom (surely the only one ever) The plane was scraped at Southend airport in 1962 after its flight cert expired

The Bal-Ami factory,I wouldnt trust the spiv in the leather gloves

The lovely Bal-Ami "D" 1951 Bal-ami Super 40

Ruffler & Walker were quick to jump on the Juke box wagon becoming The Rock-ola distributer in the UK, a move that was to make the company rich.

The End of an era

By 1959 the jukebox era was, all be it with still with a few years to go, facing its demise . The introduction of the first successful portable radios (and later the music cassette) was removing the demand for music on site and the traditional jukebox sites started to lose there machines. Army barracks, launderettes ,diners and restaurants were the first to go, coffee bars, milk bars, amusement arcades and pubs were the last. The introduction of the CD and Mp3 juke box revived things at times but with everyone carrying their own music it could never last.

I once bought four free play, 40 selection pub jukeboxes designed to supply a selection of varied background music from behind the bar, they were launched just in time to be totally un wanted in 1969,I paid jut £20 each for them ,brand new.

The 60's look

This Seeburg Fleetwood model was the only full sized Jukebox I have ever owned

mine had different artwork, bought from the arcade I was working nights at in Tooting SW London

in the 1970's

Where did they all go?

The Seeburg Family sold out in 1956 but the company went on to buy Williams pin ball Co in 1960 but were in debt by 1970 and bankrupt by 1979, Antique apparatus Co bought the remains and still produce a modern juke box selection.

Wurlitzer was sold to a German company in 1972 but closed in 2013, the remains were bought up by the Gibson guitar Co.

Rock-ola made a staggering 400,000 jukeboxes and still exist ,in a small way

The only traditional 45 rpm vinyl jukebox being made today is the Vinyl Rocket from the Sound Leisure Co in the UK. Retailing at a staggering £8,000 each.

Sound Leisure's Vinyl Rocket, yours today,new from £8,000

One unusual and one very odd type of juke box deserve a mention.

The Telephone Jukebox

This strange invention consisted of what looked much like a large jukebox but was, in fact, a big telephone, it was connected to a dedicated exchange and the customer paid his Dime, picked up the receiver and was connected to a well spoken lady at the exchange ,he told her which of the large selection of songs listed on the base unit he wanted ,she found it, put it on the turntable and played it for him through the Juke box speakers. Amazingly this was very successful.

Rock-Ola "Mystic Music" Telephone Juke box

Telephone jukebox call centre and the operators who answered the call,found the record and played it

(this photo is a rare find)

Movie poster for "The swing Hostess" a movie that used a Jennings Telephone juke box operator as the main theme

The Panoram

Mills produced this video jukebox (a film clip in reality) before WW2 .It showed what we would call now a music video, the single selection was meant to be changed regularly, although it appears to be a TV screen the film was projected onto the inside of the screen using a complicated mirror system that involved mounting the film in reverse. Mills had over 10,000 of these on sites in New York in 1940. (See this machine in action at the top left of the page)

Mills Panoram

Organised Crime and the Juke box

Coin op and gaming machines were always popular with the mob right from the word go but it was the Juke box they loved best. With no payouts, the high yield, ease of skimming of profits, freedom of places to site the machines and ease of avoiding taxes it was a big draw and it seems that all the big juke box manufactures were all, at some time, either unwittingly, coerced or (in Rock-ola's case) knowingly drawn into their web. Many jukebox distributers in the large US cities were blatantly mobsters and there was little the manufacturers could do about it or ,perhaps, they simply didn't care.

Wurlitizer executives meet their new distributers in New york

Meyer Lansky & and Jimmy"Blue eyes"Alo

Juke boxes that demand the highest prices in the collectors market today include

The Rock-ola President (only one is known to exist and is valued at $150,000

the 1952 Seeburg M100C which featured in series 1 to 10 of Happy days

the 1947 Rock-ola 1422 which featured in series 11 of Happy days

the 1967 TH Bergmann concerto

The Wurlitzer 1015

The Wurlitzer 950 (only 80 remain)

The very rare 1927 Link

Photos from the factories

Seeburg "Trashcans" at the factory

machines being cased ready to ship

Wurlitzer's at their factory

Of all coin operated machines the juke box must be the one that has given the best opportunity for eye catching design. Here are just a few classic models from the past